School survey yields ‘scary’ results
BY MAC McLEAN
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER
BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn. – Almost a third of Sullivan County’s middle-school students say they may have gotten into a car with a drunk driver.
According to the survey, 32.2 percent of boys and 27.2 percent of girls in the county school system’s sixth-, seventh- and eighth-grade classes were driven at some point by someone who was drinking.
“This is a serious health issue,” said Meredith Charles, director of the school system’s coordinated school health department. “These are our middle-school students. It’s a wonder they ever make it to school in the first place,” she said.
Charles asked about 95 percent of middle-school students 46 questions designed to identify risky behavior. She reported the results Monday to the Sullivan County Board of Education.
The survey found that 75.7 percent of students said they don’t wear a helmet when they ride a bike, and another 37 percent watch more than three hours of TV each day.
Almost 30 percent – 28.9 percent of boys and 25.3 percent of girls – said they have had at least one drink of alcohol and of those who said “yes” to this question, 40.2 percent had their first drink before their 11th birthday.
Another 17.6 percent of students said they have “seriously thought about killing themselves,” while 49.9 percent, 59.8 percent of girls and 37.6 percent of boys, said they are trying to lose weight.
“Some of that stuff’s pretty scary,” board Chairman Ron Smith said after Charles’ presentation. “We know what these kids say, now the question is, what are we going to do about this?”
Although Sullivan County’s survey results were comparable to other school systems in the region, Charles said she’s been trying to work special lessons that address these behaviors into the county’s health classes.
She hopes to conduct a survey during the next school year to gauge whether these lessons have any effect.
That upcoming school year will start one week later, according to a new calendar the board adopted Monday night. The 2009-2010 school year will start with a half day for students on Aug. 4 and end on May 24, 2010.
Board members also agreed to make fixing the roof at Central High School a priority for the school system’s maintenance budget this year because it is leaking in four classrooms and some of the building’s hallways, said Maintenance Supervisor Joe Mike Akard.
Twenty-one of the county’s 28 school buildings received a failing grade when it came to the condition of their roofs, according to a physical assessment the school system conducted last spring. Smith said the results of this assessment will be the main topic of a school board retreat set to take place Sunday at Northeast State Technical Community College.
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Reader Reactions
I am not going to back down. One person might not be able to make a difference but I am going to make some things known if I don’t get a resolution really soon. Thanks so much for posting. You’re really a great help.
Sparkie,
Thanks for the kind words. I just wish others would come forward and tell their stories. There are so many examples of all this stuff. It needs to be on the news, in the papers, and discussed in homes among all members of the family. This thing can be turned around. A good start would be doing major house cleaning at district offices throughout the country. We need to get rid of these cowardly, so-called leaders. We need people to be leaders who want to help our young people be productive members of society. Currently, we’re producing people who expect everything to be done for them. When they reach college, or the work world, they go through some sort of culture shock.
Oh well, again I say to you…GOOD LUCK!!!! Don’t ease up on this. Make it happen!!!!
Farmer,
Your posts are great! I had never thought of it until you brought it up. Patients don’t run the hospitals, (THANK GOODNESS!) and workers don’t run the companies. You have to learn to respect authority anywhere that you go. But (some)parents let their children run the homes because they want to be their pal! Then they go to school and torment the teachers because they know that they can. I used to think that no child could be that bad, but I was DEAD wrong! I saw in the paper where an 18 year old killed a 19 year old over a drug deal. This is what happens when there is no discipline. Another example that you might remember is when a 15 year old shot and killed his mother and sister several years ago. He was a student at a local school. He is now in prison and hopefully will never get out. I, for one, have no tolerance for rude, insulant chilldren, no matter what age. I raised a son who,by the Grace of God, turned out to be someone that I am very proud of. He was not allowed to be a monster in school. He was an excellent student and never disrespected authority. I know that not every bad student has or had bad parents. I know some really good people who ended up with problem children. But we all need to take a stand against the loss of morals and discipline in our schools. I say a prayer every morning and night for our world situation.
Again, thank you for your posts. They are really therapeutic! It helps to know that I am not the only one who feels this way.
Sparkie,
Indeed there are good and bad in all groups. Middle school, it seems, is where the worst behavior starts. It’s there that the BIGGEST difference could be made, if administrators wanted to do the right thing, and weren’t so scared of parents. However, grades are handed out like candy, discipline all but disappears, and students begin to see that they, and their parents, really are in charge to a great extent. It sets them on a path that we’ve all been discussing here. This is so easy to understand. Small children (pre-school) will test parents to see just what they can get away with. Everyone should know that’s normal. Students do exactly the same thing in school. When there are few, if any, boundaries, then look out. They do as they wish.
Students enter their high school years with the feeling that everything will be given to them. Combine that with being older, being able to drive, and having freedom that they’ve never had before. As a final piece of the puzzle, include some really naive parents. With all that, schools have become somewhat of a joke.
Patients don’t make major decisions in how hospitals are run, and employees usually don’t set the guidelines by which they do their work. With that in mind, who could possibly think that allowing parents and students to run the schools would be a good decision? I’ve asked that very question to many administrators over the years. It’s usually ignored, and I’m asked why I’m so negative.
Hopefully, I didn’t ramble too much. Your question is a good one. I’d have to say high schoolers are the biggest challenge, simply because they are older and have so much more freedom. That’s simply one opinion, though. A great argument could also be made that middle schoolers are the greatest challenge we face in today’s schools.
Wherever, and whoever the biggest challenges are, one thing’s for sure. School administrators don’t want to address those issues.
Farmer,
I am curious. I dont know if you are a teacher or not but if you are or have been, do you feel that one group of students (elementary, middle or high
school) is more difficult to handle? I
know that there are good and bad in every group but from what I have seen, heard and researched, middle school is the worst.
Farmer,
I have had experience with Hawkins County Schools and they are horrible. There is absolultely no support for the teacher from the administration. They tell the teacher “Control your classroom.“ Sending the students to the principal after cursing the teachers (these are middle school students)only causes the teacher a problem. Students will lay in the hall and let people step over them! They throw their chairs, use profanity, etc. There is another district that I am referring to on this post but will hold off for a couple of days to see what happens. Again, farmer, you have been very helpful and I really appreciate it.
Good Luck, Sparkie!!!
If I may ask…what school district are you experiencing problems with? If you don’t want to be that specific, I understand. At least in what I’ve seen, the school systems on the Virginia side are a little more political than Tennessee. Clearly, at the top of that list is Washington County, Virginia. I don’t know how the leaders in that district can live with themselves.
Thank you again for all your great advice. I will definitely be using it.
Sparkie,
Things can be taken care of, for sure. There are specific cases in which district leaders have changed, and done the right thing. It occurred, at least in the few cases I know of, because the folks involved wouldn’t stop contacting them. The key thing for the school districts is to keep this kind of stuff out of the press. They absolutely hate that.
Write a letter to the editor of the BHC, and watch what happens. My guess is there’ll be follow-up letters. Some suggest some kind of deal the papers, TV stations, etc., have with the school districts. If you write a letter, the paper may censor it to the point of making you look silly. So, be careful with that. If you don’t mind your name in the paper, contact a reporter and tell them what you know. Many reporters would love a big story like this one would turn into.
I’m not sure what district you’re talking about, but some around here are worse than others.
As I stated earlier, stay on these people. Trust me, though. They’ll want nothing more than for you to go away. Be persistent and watch them squirm. I wish you the best.
farmer, you definitely seem to know what you are taking about. Do you know of any situations where people have actually gotten their problems solved by visiting the school board? I plan on doing that very thing really soon if a particular situation is not handled.
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